The Civil War Era
1845-1865
U.S. History 1
Coach Pritch, J5
Brief Timeline
• “Bleeding” Kansas
• “Bleeding” Sumner
• 1856 Presidential Election
• 1857 Dred Scott SCOTUS decision
• 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates
• John Brown’s Harper’s Ferry raid
• 1860 Presidential election
Sectional Tension
• Missouri Compromise 1820
• http://www.teachingamericanhistory
.org/neh/interactives/sectionalism/l
esson1/
• Compromise of 1850
• Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
• http://www.teachingamericanhistory
.org/neh/interactives/sectionalism/l
esson3/
“Bleeding Kansas”
A period map showing free states (red), slave
states (gray), territories (green), and Kansas
Territory (white, in the center)
• 1854-55 Emigrant Aid
societies: New
Englanders to KS to
fight slavery =
freesoilers
• Proslavery forces came
to vote illegally in
territorial elections
• 1855: antislavery
capital = Topeka;
proslavery capital =
Lecompton
• May 21, 1856
looting/burning of
Lawrence, KS,
homes+newspapers by
proslavery Southerners
“Bleeding Kansas”:
Violence Erupts
• May 24, 1856
John Brown
and posse
massacre five
men at
Pottawotomie
Creek
• Violent
summer, raids
and counter
raids =
“bleeding
Kansas”
The ruins of a hotel after the “Sack of Lawrence”
“Bleeding Kansas”: Effects
Missouri raiders shooting down freesoil settlers in Kansas
• Brown’s attack
spurred widespread
violence
• Republicans trumped
up situation to meet
their interests;
Democrats heavily
promoted settlement
• Pres. Pierce supported
proslavery forces; did
nothing to quell
violence
The Lecompton Constitution
• Territorial governor supported popular
sovereignty
• Proslavery Kansans held constitutional
convention in Lecompton
• Series of stacked votes on constitution
• Buchanan supported constitution to keep
Southern support; clashed with Douglas
• Struggles over ratification of constitution
Brooks Attacks Sumner
A political cartoon depicts the attack
• Sumner made
Senate speech
against Butler,
Brooks’s uncle
• Brooks caned
Sumner into
unconsciousness
on Senate floor
• Brooks resigned
his seat, but was
quickly reelected
Discussion Questions
1. What was the Republican Party’s
philosophy regarding slavery? What aspect
of the slavery issue did the party most
object to?
2. What was “Bleeding Kansas”? How did the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
contribute to this?
3. How did John Brown’s actions in Kansas
add to sectional tensions in the territory?
The Election of 1856
John C. Fremont, the first
Republican presidential
candidate
• Republicans ran
Fremont
• Democrats
chose
Buchanan, a
“doughface”
• Buchanan won,
but Republicans
showed strength
• www.270towin.c
om
The Dred Scott Case: Origins
• Slave whose master
had moved him to
free territory for
several years
• Sued for his freedom
under the Northwest
Ordinance and
Missouri
Compromise
• Case appealed to
U.S. Supreme Court
in 1857
Dred Scott
Dred Scott: The Decision
Chief Justice Roger B.
Taney
• Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
• Taney ruled against Scott:
• Slaves, as non-citizens, had
no constitutional rights
• State laws determined a
slave’s freedom, not federal
• Congress’s power to create
territorial rules did not
include prohibiting slavery
• Missouri Compromise
unconstitutional
Dred Scott: Curtis’s Dissent
• Believed that Scott
was a citizen
• Asserted that Scott’s
residence in free
territory changed his
status as a slave
• Missouri
Compromise
constitutional:
Congress had the
right to make
territorial laws
Justice Benjamin R. Curtis
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• Lincoln challenged
Douglas to a series of
debates
• Douglas saw Lincoln
as a tough opponent
• Thousands viewed the
pair as they spoke
• Both candidates used
different styles to
explain their views
•
“He is the strong man of the party,”
Douglas stated, “full of wit, facts,
dates, and the best stump speaker,
with his droll ways and dry jokes, in
the West. He is as honest as he is
shrewd, and if I beat him my victory
will be hardly won.”
Lincoln and Douglas spoke in seven
different Illinois communities
The “Freeport Doctrine”
• Lincoln asked Douglas how, in light of Dred
Scott, the people of a territory could exclude
slavery
• Douglas said that slavery could only flourish
when supported by local laws; no laws, no
slavery
• Douglas’s response probably helped him win
the election, but killed any future
presidential bid
Discussion Questions
1. What was significant about Fremont’s
candidacy in the 1856 election? What did
the results demonstrate about the
Republican Party?
2. What was the ruling in the Dred Scott case,
and what made it so controversial? On
what grounds did Justice Curtis dissent?
3. What was the Freeport Doctrine? Why
might it have helped Douglas defeat
Lincoln in 1858, but hurt him in the 1860
presidential election?
John Brown
John Brown
• Raised in an
antislavery family
• Never financially
successful
• Involved in
abolitionist
activities, including
the Underground
Railroad
• Pottawatomie
Massacre
Harpers Ferry
• October 1859
• Brown and
followers
planned to seize
arsenal and arm
slaves
• Slaves failed to
join in rebellion
• Some of Brown’s
men killed; he
was captured
Federal troops prepare to storm the arsenal at
Harpers Ferry
The Execution of John Brown
Brown kisses a slave child on
the way to his execution
• Brown convicted of
treason against
Virginia
• Hanged in
December 1859
• Considered a hero
to many
Northerners
• Southerners feared
that some might
follow his example
Brown’s Speech Before the Virginia
Court
Upon receiving the death sentence for his involvement
in the raid on Harpers Ferry, John Brown made the
following remarks to the jury which convicted him:
“Now if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my
life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and mingle
my blood further with the blood of my children and with
the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights
are disregarded by wicked, cruel and unjust enactments,
I say, let it be done.”
Southern Extremism Grows
• Southerners fearful of Northern dominance
• Worried that new free states would be able
to abolish slavery
• State legislatures restricted civil liberties;
made freeing slaves illegal
• Concept of secession became popular
Essential Questions
•
•
•
•
Was the Civil War “unavoidable”?
Was the Civil War fought to end slavery?
Are we still fighting the Civil War today?
What was the greatest cause of the Civil War and
why?
• How did the Civil War “make” modern America?
• What if the Confederacy had won the war?
Fundamental Causes of the War
• Sectionalism and states’ rights
• Slavery
• Economic issues
•
•
•
•
The Dividing Union
Missouri Compromise (1820)
Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law
Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854)
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
Dred Scott
Cartoon criticizing the Fugitive Slave Law
The Election of 1860
Abraham
Lincoln
John C.
Breckinridge
Stephen A.
Douglas
John Bell
Electoral Votes in 1860
Secession
• South Carolina
was first to
secede
• Several other
states followed
soon after
• Virginia
seceded after
the Battle of
Fort Sumter
Seceding states appear in green
Discussion Questions
1. What were the three fundamental causes of the Civil
War? Which do you think was the most important?
Why?
2. How did the Dred Scott decision help bring the country
closer to civil war? Do you think the decision made
civil war inevitable? Why or why not?
3. While running for president, Abraham Lincoln said
that he had no plans to abolish slavery. Why then did
Southerners fear his election so much?
The Creation of the Confederacy
• Delegates met in
Montgomery, Alabama
• Formed the Confederate
States of America
• Jefferson Davis elected
president, with
Alexander Stephens as
vice president
CSA President Jefferson Davis
Buchanan’s Inaction
• Believed secession was
illegal, but that acting to
prevent it was also
illegal
• Decided to let the
incoming administration
handle the problem
President James Buchanan
Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address
• March 4, 1861
• Promised not to
interfere with slavery
where it already existed
• Attempted to reconcile
with the South
A crowd listens to Lincoln’s speech at the
Capitol building
Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address
• “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to
interfere with the institution of slavery in the
states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful
right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”
• “I take the official oath today with no mental
reservations and with no purpose to construe the
Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules;
and while I do not choose now to specify
particular acts of Congress as proper to be
enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer
for all, both in official and private stations, to
conform to and abide by all those acts which
stand unrepealed than to violate any of them
trusting to find impunity in having them held to
be unconstitutional.”
Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address
• “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and
not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The
Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict
without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no
oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government,
while I shall have the most solemn one to ‘preserve,
protect, and defend it’... We are not enemies, but
friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may
have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every
battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and
hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the
chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they
will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Lincoln and Fort Sumter
• Confederates demanded that the fort be surrendered
• Lincoln received urgent message from Ft. Sumter’s
commander
• Lincoln faced with dilemma of resupplying Sumter
• Decided to send only “food for hungry men”
Fort Sumter
The War Begins
• Bombardment began on April 12, 1861
• Anderson surrendered to Gen. Beauregard, a close
friend and colleague
Painting depicting
the bombardment of
Fort Sumter
The “Anaconda Plan”
The Union’s strategy:
• Naval blockade
from Louisiana to
Virginia
• Control of the
Mississippi River
Confederate strategy
primarily defensive
Cartoon about the “Anaconda Plan”
Advantages & Disadvantages:
The Union
A Massachusetts factory
Advantages:
• Industry and railroads
• Larger population
• Legitimate government
• Strong political
leadership
Disadvantages:
• Funding difficulties
• Offensive war
• Lack of skilled
military leaders
Advantages & Disadvantages:
The Confederacy
Advantages:
• Defensive war on home turf
• Common cause
• Strong military tradition and
outstanding leaders
Disadvantages:
• Weak economy
• Smaller population
• Ineffective central
government and leadership
Generals Robert E. Lee and
Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson
War Aims: North and South
• The North: to preserve the Union
• The South: safeguarding states’ rights, as well as
protecting the South from “Northern aggression”
Abraham
Lincoln
Horace
Greeley
Discussion Questions
1. Pretend you are a member of Buchanan’s cabinet.
How would you advise him to deal with the
secession crisis in the period before the next
president took office?
2. Do you think the “Anaconda Plan” was an effective
strategy for subduing the Confederacy? If not, what
strategy would you have recommended?
3. Which side’s goals for the war seem more
reasonable to you? Why?
Prelude to Emancipation
• At first, Lincoln did not
believe he had the
authority to end slavery
• However, every slave
working on a plantation
allowed a white
Southerner to fight
• Lincoln saw
emancipation as a
strategic issue as well as
a moral one
Slaves on a South Carolina plantation, 1862
Advantages to Emancipation
Lincoln discussing emancipation with his cabinet
• Cause “union” in
the North by
linking the war to
abolishing slavery
• Cause disorder in
the South as slaves
were freed
• Kept Britain out of
the war
The Emancipation Proclamation
• Lincoln announced
proclamation after Antietam
• Took effect on January 1, 1863
• Freed slaves only in “territories
in rebellion”
A cartoon celebrating emancipation
Dealing With Dissent
• Copperheads
• Led by Rep. Clement
Vallandigham of Ohio
• Lincoln suspends
habeas corpus
Rep. Clement Vallandigham
Manpower for the War
• Mostly volunteers
• Conscription needed to
sustain troop levels
• In the North, draftees
could hire substitutes or
pay $300 to opt out
An illustrated sheet music cover
protesting the inequities of the draft
New York Draft Riots
• July 1863
• Rioters mainly poor
whites and Irish
immigrants
• Opposed to freeing
slaves
• More than 100 people
killed
Rioters loot a New York store
African American Enlistment
Col. Robert Gould Shaw
Memorial to the 54th
Massachusetts
• Congress allowed black
enlistment in 1862
• 54th Massachusetts
commanded by Colonel
Shaw
• Half of 54th killed in
assault on Ft. Wagner
• Helped spur further
enlistment
The Sanitary Commission
• Poor health conditions in
army camps
• U.S. Sanitary
Commission created
• Purposes included
improving hygiene and
recruiting nurses
• Developed better
methods of transporting
wounded to hospitals
A Civil War field hospital
Civil War Medicine
• Infection often deadlier
than the wounds
• Amputations more
common
• Anesthesia widely used
A surgeon at the Camp Letterman field
hospital at Gettysburg prepares for an
amputation
Andersonville
• Confederate POW camp
in Georgia
• 32,000 prisoners
jammed into 26 acres
• One-third of all
prisoners died
• Superintendent was
executed as a war
criminal
Severely emaciated POWs rescued
from Andersonville
The Gettysburg Address
• Lincoln invited to attend
cemetery dedication
• Everett the principal
speaker
• At the time, Lincoln’s
two-minute speech was
considered great by
some, a failure by others
The only known picture of Lincoln
(lower center) at the Gettysburg
Cemetery dedication
Election of 1864
A political cartoon shows Lincoln and Davis tearing a
U.S. map while McClellan tries to intercede
• Lincoln sought
reelection
• Democrats
nominated
McClellan
• Union victories
helped Republican
campaign
• Lincoln won by
large margin
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural
Lincoln addresses the crowd
at his second inauguration. It
is believed that John Wilkes
Booth is the figure at top row
center.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural
• “With malice toward none, with charity for all,
with firmness in the right as God gives us to see
the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are
in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him
who shall have borne the battle and for his
widow and his orphan—to do all which may
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations."
The Fall of Richmond
• Lee told Davis the
capital was in danger
• Davis ordered
evacuation
• Union forces took
Richmond
• Lincoln toured the city
soon after
The remains of buildings after the
Union invasion, April 1865
Surrender at Appomattox
•
•
•
•
Lee realized his position was hopeless
Asked to meet with Grant
Met in Appomattox on April 9, 1865
Lenient surrender terms
An artist’s
rendition of the
meeting
Impact of the War
Freedmen disinter bodies of soldiers killed at
Cold Harbor for reburial after the war
Impact of the War: the Union
• 111,000 killed in action
• 250,000 killed by non-military causes (mostly
disease)
• Over 275,000 wounded
• Estimated cost in today’s dollars: $6.19 billion
Union dead at
Gettysburg
Impact of the War:
the Confederacy
• 93,000 killed in
battle
• 165,000 killed by
non-military
causes
• Over 137,000
wounded
• Estimated cost in
today’s dollars:
$2.10 billion
Destruction in Atlanta after Sherman’s
troops took the city
Discussion Questions
1. Why did Grant’s “total war” policy meet with resistance
even in the North? Do you think the policy was a good
idea? Why?
2. How did Grant and Sherman’s military campaigns help
Lincoln win reelection in 1864?